Trump vs. The Philadelphia Eagles

In newspaper articles, every writer is focused on enhancing a certain public perception. When reading “Trump vs. the Philadelphia Eagles” by Eileen Sullivan on 5th June 2018 in the New York Times, one will realize the intention of the journalist in supporting one side of the story. Although the story carries a lot of evidence by quoting direct speeches from both Philadelphia Eagles players and President Trump, Sullivan uses certain phrases subtly to tilt the story in favor of the White House.

In the article, Sullivan uses some phrases to create a sabotage theory. According to some of the words used in the article, the Sullivan seems to insinuate that the Philadelphia Eagles players were acting for political reasons. At the beginning of the article, the writer indicates that President Trump had decided to call off the event. In this case, the writer does not give the events that led to that scenario. By writing in this manner, Sullivan creates an opinion that the players had offended the White House administration and as such this led to the unanimous decision to cancel the event. Also, the writer uses phrases such as “an annual tradition that is typically free of controversy” and “…Traditionally, the winners of the annual football championship game have been invited to the White House” (Sullivan, 2018). With these two phrases, Sullivan seems to use the ethos to demonstrate that the Eagles players had violated a long-standing tradition.

Sullivan would have taken maximum neutrality through the words that she used in her article. For instance, she would have indicated that the reason for the Philadelphia Eagles players to break this White House tradition was because of the issues that the players had with the President. By talking about the traditions and not accompanying that phrase with reasons, Sullivan was already condemning the players.

Reference

Sullivan, E. (2018). Trump vs. the Philadelphia Eagles. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/05/us/politics/trump-Philadelphia-eagles.html